The impact of high school leadership styles on Latino parental engagement

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2015-05

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ABSTRACT Purpose The purpose of this study is to further understand in what ways high school principals encourage and engage Latino parent participation. This study examined diverse leadership styles of high school principals that improve Latino parental engagement in all aspects of their child’s education.
Methodology For this qualitative study, the researcher selected the multiple case study research design to investigate the leadership styles of six high school principals in real-life settings and to gather data on their perspectives of Latino parental engagement. The researcher chose simple random sampling with potential high school principal participants that demonstrated transformational and democratic leadership qualities. Findings Four significant themes emerged from the study: Engagement with parents varies according to school type, urban school districts seem to do more to promote other cultures or ethnicities, the lack of Latino parental engagement may have more to do with economic status than other barriers, and there seems to be a greater emphasis on the use of social media to engage parents. The six principals in this study are models of transformational and democratic leaders that are essential in schools today in order to engage more parents, especially Latino or other minority parents. Implications Latinos constitute one of the fastest growing populations in the nation, due to high rates of immigration and high comparative fertility rates. Latino parental involvement is an important topic to high school principals since Latino parents can contribute to the academic success of their children. Transformational and democratic leaders are essential to engaging Latino parents in all aspects of their child’s education, particularly since these types of leaders do not view Latino parents as inferior or incapable of making positive contributions on a campus. District leaders must strive to ensure that campus principals utilize transformational and democratic leadership qualities in order to improve schools and engage parents of all ethnicities.

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Keywords

Parental engagement, Leadership styles

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